Click and drag to rotate
Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Touch with mouse to dismiss

Ashburn

The sky at

The Ophiuchid meteor shower will reach its maximum rate of
activity on 20 June 2017. Some shooting stars associated with the shower are expected to
be visible each night from 19 May to July.

Annual meteor showers arise when the Earth passes through streams of debris
left behind by comets and asteroids. As pebble-sized pieces of debris collide
with the Earth, they burn up at an altitude of around 70 to 100 km, appearing
as shooting stars.

By determining the speed and direction at which the meteors impact the Earth,
it is possible to work out the path of the stream through the Solar System and
identify the body responsible for creating it.
To date, however, the parent body responsible for creating the Ophiuchid shower has not been identified.

Observing prospects

The maximum rate of meteors expected to be visible is around
5 per hour (ZHR).
However, this assumes a perfectly dark sky and that the radiant of the meteor
shower is directly overhead. In practice, the number of meteors you are likely
to see is lower than this, and can be calculated from the ZHR formula.

From Ashburn (click to change), the radiant of the shower will appear 30° above your southern horizon at midnight. This means you may be able to see around 2 meteors per hour, since the radiant will be high in the sky, maximising the chance of seeing meteors.

The radiant of the Ophiuchid meteor shower is at around right ascension
17h20m, declination 20°S, as shown by the green cross on the planetarium above.
All of the meteors will appear to be travelling directly outward from this
point, as indicated by the white lines drawn above.

The Moon will be 26 days old at the time of peak activity, presenting minimal interference.

To see the most meteors, the best place to look is not directly at the
radiant itself, but at any dark patch of sky which is around 30–40° away from
it. It is at a distance of around this distance from the radiant that meteors
will show reasonably long trails without being too spread out.